The Ecom Show

Finding a Winning Product, Scaling Up and Adapting to Facebook Ads Updates

All the way from Scotland is ecommerce growth hacker Fraser Brien! In just 3 years, Fraser has gone from an inexperienced marketer to one of the industry’s most knowledgeable accelerated growth marketers, specializing in Facebook Ad buying and horizontal scaling to other countries throughout Europe.

It doesn’t matter which country or culture he’s appealing to. Like a real marketer, Fraser can adapt and find a way to communicate with any audience.

On this episode of The Ecom Show, Daniel Budai, our multitalented CEO and podcast host, talks shop with Fraser Brien about:

✔️ How to know when you have a winning product
✔️ Common problems when scaling too fast
✔️ Adapting to the Facebook Ads updates
✔️ Knowing your market
✔️ The best tips and tools for growing and scaling horizontally

Finding Your Product and Brand

Great marketing won’t save you from a bad product or brand. When choosing the item you plan on selling, you should always consider the lifetime value of each customer. If they shop with you one time and have anything less than a stellar experience, you can assume they won’t return. Having a problem that allows customers to keep buying is key.

It’s also essential to give people a powerful brand because all the marketing in the world won’t help if you don’t have a following, an audience, or a soul underneath it all. He can’t choose a product for you, but Fraser does note that if your core concept and product are solid, you’ll make it a lot easier on yourself when you market it!

Growing Pains

If you want to expand to other countries, there are plenty of things you need to consider. If you’re going to sell products in Canada, for example, you’ll need to account for the customs and taxes on an item because people won’t leave great reviews if they need to pay expensive fees on top of the money they already spent.

It also helps to know the legality of selling in other countries and do your due diligence when it comes to admin. The “under the road” infrastructure, as Fraser calls it, is the foundation for a successful move to another market!

Weighing in on the Apple vs. Facebook War

The IOS update from Apple was thought to have crippled Facebook Ads, but the marketers can adapt and overcome! Ultimately, Fraser doesn’t think the update will be a bad thing, but for now, people have to get used to finding a new way to collect data and track their spending on ads.

You also can’t expect to throw a lot of money at ad buying on Facebook and hope to see results anymore, so it pays to capture your data and know how to use it properly!

Catering to Different Cultures and Countries

Fraser noted that expanding into other countries is trickier in some than others. If you want to hit the Danish or Dutch markets, you can feel it out with English copywriting due to local language proficiency. However, French, German, and Spanish people are less likely to engage, so it helps to have a translated website and copy that isn’t just translated word for word.

It’s important to know what the local culture is like, what social media platform they like best, how they engage, what is ok or not acceptable to say, and other cultural differences that could come into play. Some cultures are more diverse so studying your market is critical.

Advice for All Marketers

With significant IOS changes, it’s more important than ever to learn how to compile data, form a hypothesis, and test it. Google Analytics is one of the best tools a marketer can know how to use, and it’s completely free! Knowing how to use this proficiently could make a whole world of difference, especially in the post-IOS update world.

There are, of course, many platforms at your disposal when it comes to marketing to your audience, but it is necessary to know what roles they can play and where your brand’s customers typically hang out. Some younger brands may resonate more with TikTok, while Pinterest takes longer to grow but pays off with much more quality leads.


Find Fraser on LinkedIn:

Fraser’s LinkedIn

You can also follow Daniel Budai here:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook
 

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The Importance of Owned Data, Attribution Models and Omnichannel Marketing to Scale Up Your Ecommerce Brand

How does someone who got into ecommerce “by accident” become one of the most respected and successful ecommerce business owners in the entire industry?

On this episode of The Ecom Show, we have the privilege of hearing from Colin McGuire, the CEO of Boomn, a phenomenal group of marketers that does whatever it takes to incubate ecommerce brands and accelerate their growth.

Listen in as our agency founder and podcast host Daniel Budai sits in with Colin McGuire as they harken back to the olden days of ecommerce and recount how the industry has changed rapidly over the last ten years.

You can also hear from Colin about:
✔️ Ecommerce in 2011 vs. 2021
✔️ Attribution models and owned data
✔️ Importance of omnichannel marketing
✔️ What it takes to go from 7 figures to 8 or 9 figures
✔️ Valuing and purchasing an existing ecommerce brand

From Taboo to Dream Job

Early on, Daniel and Colin discuss the early days of ecommerce, back when “dropshipping” and “print-on-demand” weren’t even a thing yet.

Colin began buying stuff from overseas and shipping it to his apartment, where he would package and send it out himself. Not many respected his line of work, and he says it even felt taboo at times, but now the script has flipped, and everyone wants a piece of the ecommerce pie.

Competition has also increased dramatically, but that isn’t a problem for innovators and early adopters like Colin and his company!

Data is Your Friend

Numbers may not lie, but we sure as heck can misread them! In some instances, you can get away with doing something “good,” but in this case, good is the enemy of great, as Colin likes to put it. Big companies crush the competition because they have a profound understanding of their attribution models and have organized it down to a T.

With recent Facebook updates, it’s harder to track where traffic is coming from, which further adds to the importance of owning your data. If you have to rely on other channels and platforms to keep track of your acquisition numbers, it’s a lot more complicated.

Marketing on One Channel is a Thing of the Past

There’s no sense in throwing all your money into one channel these days. You simply won’t make a splash.

To compete with the big dogs, you’ll need to construct a fully-integrated cross channel strategy on multiple platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. Boomn owes a lot of its success to its ability to master any channel with its expert crew of marketers.

It’s even better if you can build them up alongside one another to complement each channel and help capture people from vastly differing audiences and areas of the web.

How to Grow a Brand Beyond 8 Figures

Making mistakes is always a big thing in the beginning. How you use these mistakes will guide your future going forward, so be ready to learn from them and move on. Again, data is the secret to unlocking extra zeros at the end of your revenue, and you have to get creative when it comes to deploying new strategies.

Colin mentions being one of the early movers innovation-wise over the years, adopting Facebook and Google Ad spend way before anyone else thought to. He even attributes 30 percent of his revenue from SMS marketing last year, which is quite impressive in its own right!

Don’t Overpay

Boomn is planning on buying a few existing brands this year, as it is “easier to get off the ground” if everything is established. Colin prefers poorly run brands with great winning products because his team can slip right in and clean it up.

One thing he warns of is overpaying for a brand. If you are getting into ecommerce and want to buy a brand, make sure to do your due diligence and remember that many people are overcharging. Try offering a deal to companies that aren’t for sale, and only go for companies that are a few years old.

It may not be easy to get to the level that Colin is at currently, but it is easy to reach out to him on:

Colin's LinkedIn

Colin's Instagram

You can also follow Daniel Budai here:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook
 

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The 10 Commandments of High-Converting Email Campaigns

We’ve got a special guest lined up for this episode of The Ecom Show, and you might have heard his name before…

If you were hoping for a crash course on how to build out your email marketing strategy for an ecommerce brand, you’re in luck!

Our founder and CEO, Daniel Budai, is taking a break from being the podcast host this time around and instead joins us as a featured guest with lots to share.

You can hear the sacred Ten Commandments of Emails and other fascinating stuff like:

✔️ Automated flows vs. Email campaigns

✔️ Why segmentation is an integral part of ecommerce email marketing

✔️ Defining your brand’s voice and style

✔️ Finding a balance of content and sales promotions

✔️ Winning big with monthly sales events

Know the Difference

The two major types of email categories are automated flows which are triggered by actions like purchases or abandoning a cart, and email campaigns which can be sent out manually at any time for any reason.

Daniel chose to focus on campaigns because brands usually create them on an ongoing basis. Flows are the backbone of your retention marketing strategy, while campaigns raise the ceiling and provide people with relevant information all the time.

Segment! Segment! Segment!

Segmentation is your best friend. It doesn’t matter if you are splintering your lists based on language, country, gender, purchase history, email open rate, or anything else.

What does matter is that you know how often to send emails to certain subscribers. Limit yourself to one email a month for your least engaged subscribers, and make sure you take note of repeat buyers and include them in special events, deals, and discounts.

Know Your Voice, Find Your Style

If you don’t know your brand, you can’t expect graphic designers and copywriters to know it. The best thing you can do is figure out what really makes people listen. Do your customers pay more attention to well-written copy, or do crisp photos of products drive them wild?

Once you get a handle on the situation, keep rolling with whatever voice, content, photos, or anything else resonates with your community! A clearly defined brand guide works wonders, especially if you plan on working with others to build your brand’s marketing strategy!

The Golden Ratio

Short term or long term? That is the question…

You should plan according to your budget, but it usually is advantageous to think ahead and build your brand early. However, most new companies can hardly afford to focus on anything other than sales.

Laying off the sales promotions and offering up content can help warm up your community and build trust, helping in the long run and making you more money. That being said, there is no real wrong way to do it, although everyone should be wary of burning out their email lists and scaring off potential customers with too many sales pitches and not enough substance.

Every Month Deserves a Sales Event

Whether it’s the saturated month of November or the relatively uneventful month of January, there is always a reason to have a sale!

We’ve seen brands get pretty creative and hold sales on random holidays, with some companies completely inventing their own holiday to have an event. It doesn’t matter why you hold the sale, but it does matter that you build hype and give your community reason to celebrate each month! A happy customer means more revenue down the line, so it’s in your best interest to drum up excitement for your subscribers!

When Budai Media founder Daniel isn’t busy guiding brands to the retention marketing promise land, he’s happy to connect on social media:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Daniel's presentation 

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Personal Videos, Connecting with Customers, and Boosting Lifetime Value

On this episode of The Ecom Show, podcast host and Budai Media founder Daniel has an intercontinental call with Matthew Barnett, the “Papa Bear” over at Bonjoro in Sydney, Australia!

Bonjoro is an innovative SAAS company specializing in personalized videos for customers, which has proven to provide a massive boost to all major KPIs in all areas, including ecommerce.

It’s getting more and more competitive in the online world each day. Since Bonjoro has changed the entire industry for ecommerce brands, it made sense to pick Matthews brain and get some helpful insights about:

✔️ Connecting with customers
✔️ Figuring out which high-value customers to target
✔️ Acquiring customers with your reviews
✔️ Lifetime value and subscription services
✔️ The importance of utilizing your own data

Keep the Connection!

Bonjoro works well because it utilizes one obvious principle. People want to feel special, and that is exactly what they feel when they receive a personalized video during their customer journey.

Studies have shown that sending a personalized video like you can with Bonjoro has tripled conversion rates and lifetime value, thanks to the data they collect and send to their clients. Delivering a stellar customer experience will encourage people to come back again and tell their loved ones about your brand.

Work Smarter Not Harder 

Despite the success that Bonjoro has found, Matthew acknowledges that no business can afford the time and energy it would take to send a video to everyone. If you want to retain that authentic feel, you can target specific customers that bring lots of value, make groups of people to send videos to or even send new videos each day that feel real and special.  

You don’t even need to mention people’s names or locations in the video to make them feel like they are part of something special. Some companies even hire video representatives or pay their warehouse staff to make personalized videos each time an order is placed! 

Reviews are your Friend

Personalized videos don’t just help with making sales. Matthew was kind enough to mention his review platform strategy that helped one client of his become the number one rated men’s fashion brand in Denmark on Trustpilot.

Depending on your niche and location, some sites work better for others, but you should always encourage happy customers to leave you a review. This will only make it easier and cheaper to bring in new customers down the line!

Focus your attention on a significant site and try to overcome the odds, or target up and coming, less competitive sites where it is a lot easier to rank higher early on.

Bringing the Value

Both Daniel and Matthew notice that too often in ecommerce, attention is given to the wrong KPIs. Lifetime Value is arguably the most critical for success.

Understanding that a customer who buys your most expensive item isn’t necessarily better than a customer buying a cheap or mid-tier item is a concept most don’t understand. It makes more sense to target customers that will keep buying from you for ten or more years rather than a wealthy customer that will buy one thing and never return.

Your churn rate relates to the fact that any non-repeat customer is essentially a lost customer, which sounds bad when you put it that way. Figuring out how to not lose customers is half the battle, but that’s where personalized videos and retention marketing work wonders.

Trust the Math

Without data, none of Bonjoro’s techniques would be as effective. The longer you are in business, the better your data gets. It’s essential to figure out what the numbers are telling you and building your strategy around it!

Listen to the data you gather, and fic wholes in your customer journey or sales funnel accordingly. A customized video can be the best thing to get it done!

Follow Matthew:

Bonjoro.com

Verbate.com

Matthew “Papa Bear” Barnett’s LinkedIn

Follow Daniel: 

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

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Preaching the Supply Chain Gospel: Winning with Better Products at Cheaper Prices

We were lucky to score a 2-for-1 special for this episode of The Ecom Show, with Nick Christie and Nick Andreas from Stacked SCMS, who got their start in ecommerce several years ago when they both operated successful stores on eBay and Amazon.

Now both Nicks leverage their knowledge of targeted ads, customer retention, and most importantly, the magic of setting up a winning supply chain to rake in money for their own businesses and the ecommerce brands of their clients!

From logistical breakdowns and broken supply chains to vertical integration and a massive network of ecommerce owners, it’s incredible to hear the story of Nick Christie and Nick Andreas.

These two have lots to share with our The Ecom Show’s host Daniel, like:
✔️ What to focus on once you hit six figures a day in ecommerce
✔️ The power of networking
✔️ Ecommerce trends of 2021
✔️ How supply chains can make or break your business
✔️ Understanding ecommerce from all angles

To Each Their Own

When you scale up your revenue, you also scale up your problems too! One mistake that might cost you a few hundred dollars, in the beginning, could end up costing you a hundred thousand dollars once you grow much larger.

Logistic problems are a nightmare for ecommerce business, which is why both Nicks preach winning through your supply chain! At a massive scale, every penny you can save on sourcing products is thousands of dollars in potential profit.

Network = Networth

Right from the get-go, these guys realized how important it is to surround yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs. You can learn a great deal from others doing the same thing after all!

When both Nicks put their heads together and started living with several other brand owners, they found seemingly obvious solutions to their problems and were able to grow their businesses more.

A strong network reaching around the globe also means great connections with manufacturers, suppliers, shippers, and ultimately, happy customers.

2021 for Ecommerce

With big changes to Facebook algorithms and analytics, brands have to change the way they advertise. Ultimately though all the headaches of the algorithm changeover, Nick and Nick believe the new Facebook Ads will help better brands reach their warm audiences easier.

Since the guys at Stacked SCM have always practiced the “vortex approach” when it comes to the top and bottom of their funnels, they won’t have a painful transition like many other ecommerce businesses. Engaging people on a multitude of channels and tracking their movement between them all is key to targeting and retargeting customers.

May the Best Supply Chain Win

It’s funny how a logistical nightmare for the Nicks turned into a business idea. Leverage their combined volume of orders for themselves and others in their network to bring down product sourcing costs. Now they help others dominate their niche with the cheapest, highest quality products.

Once they have found something that works and tweaked it, they can scale up and outspend everyone on advertising. Having vertical integration with fulfillment, manufacture, and advertising means lots of success! 

Knowing the Entire Industry

Our friends at Stacked SCM have a massive advantage with their business since they are also ecommerce brand owners. They understand each facet of the industry so well that they can truly put themselves in their customer’s shoes.

During the pandemic, any logistical supply chain problem has been no sweat for them since they’ve seen it all before and managed to find a solution for most issues plaguing other brands. It goes to show how important it is to branch out and learn different areas instead of just sticking to what you are good at.

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Follow Nick Christie and Nick Andreas: 

Stacked SCM
 

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How to Scale Up Your Ecommerce Business in 2021

Our very first webinar is also an informative, action-packed episode of The Ecom Show, thanks to Budai Media’s founder and podcast host Daniel, and his lovely guests:

• Allie Guertin, Channel Customer Success Manager at Klaviyo 
• Ben Erdelyi, Senior Account Manager at Budai Media 
• Erik Huberman, CEO & Founder of Hawke Media
• Kevin Urrutia, Founder of Voy Media 
• Soma Arnold Toth, CEO & Founder of Recart

We wanted to host a learning opportunity for all community members and beyond to evolve our understanding and learn new methods that will help us Scale-up Businesses in 2021.

Pull up a seat and listen as we discuss:

✔️ SEO and how it helps you control the brand narrative

✔️ The cost of retaining customers vs. acquiring customers

✔️ Exciting developments with Messenger and other channels in 2021

✔️ The skyrocketing price of ad spend during the rise of ecommerce

✔️ Building a community and getting better lifetime customer value

What is Your Story?

As an agency owner, travel luggage merchant, and cleaning company founder (and a former podcast guest on The Ecom Show), Kevin Urrutia says that SEO is how he is able to find success. Paid Ads can help, but SEO truly puts the power of “controlling your brand narrative” in your own hands.

This goes for Instagram, Google, Youtube, or affiliate bloggers/reviewers too. Put as much content as you can online because people are already searching for your brand, whether you know it or not. Make it easier for them!

Retention is a Theme in 2021

Allie knows better than most just how important it is to retain customers due to her work at Klaviyo. In 2021 it will be more important than ever to make sure your automations are in place to “make you money overnight.” Got a coffee brand or food product you are selling? Why not send an automated flow after seven days to ask them if they need a refill at 10% OFF?

You should make your customers feel like more than customers. It costs 7x more to acquire new customers than it does to retain the ones you already have!

More Ways to Engage

Recart’s CEO, Soma, mentioned some exciting developments happening this year, as the combining of the Facebook Messenger and Instagram DM platforms along with their potent backend analytics.

On another note, there are so many new channels to utilize in the coming year, especially for automations, shipping details, and customer service flows, that can be integrated in various ways both on and off your website.

Change the Way You Do Business

After the pandemic hit in 2020, Baby Boomers spending online jumped 300%. Ecommerce is here to stay, and as it gets more competitive, Erik says customer retention grows more important. With ad spend skyrocketing, it is crucial to focus on merchandising, customer satisfaction, and your business’s foundation.

Solid companies were able to weather the storm just fine in 2020, while the pandemic crushed lots of bad companies that weren’t set up sustainably. You want people to keep buying with you, so what are you doing to make that happen?

Convenience and Community

Our own senior account manager Ben was quick to point out the recurring theme of the webinar. “How can you keep customers coming back for more?”. Content emails did better than ever over the last year because, as Allie suggested, people were “inside and bored and willing to read anything.” Ben thinks that building a community has been crucial for email marketing, with some of Budai Media’s most successful clients really thriving with their new content emails.

He also suggests utilizing the subscription model, which all but ensures that customers come back on a monthly basis while using helpful software like Recharge to smooth out the process.

Best in the Industry

We’re genuinely proud to call these companies our partners, and we’re excited to see what they have in store for 2021. In the ever-changing, rapidly evolving ecommerce industry, it’s more important than ever to stay on your toes and adapt to the times. Each of our guests gave some solid wisdom for how we can scale up businesses in 2021 and take advantage of the situation rather than just “make do with what we have.”

Above all, our webinar was a big hit with those that we’re able to RSVP a seat, so we are incredibly excited to promote and organize more in the future!

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn 

Daniel's Facebook 

Follow Allie from Klaviyo:

Allie's LinkedIn 

Klaviyo website 

Follow Ben from Budai Media:

Ben's LinkedIn 

Ben's Facebook 

Budai Media website 

Follow Erik from Hawke Media:

Erik's LinkedIn 

Hawke Media website 

Follow Kevin from Voy Media:

Kevin's LinkedIn 

Voy Media website 

Follow Soma from Recart:

Soma's LinkedIn 

Recart website 

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How to Explore and Make the Most of Ecommerce Email Marketing in 2021

What’s better than hearing from one retention marketing and email expert that founded their own agency? Listening to a discussion between two of them!

In our latest episode of The Ecom Show, friends and “friendly competitors” Mark Milutin and our host Daniel Budai talk about how they employ the newest retention marketing methods to drive results and make their clients happy!

Learn the secrets of both Bread Loaf and Budai Media in addition to:

✔️ Running and organizing an agency

✔️ The most valuable assets a business has

✔️ The importance of client education

✔️ Building passionate communities

✔️ How to take Q1 from boring to exciting

To Each Their Own

While Budai Media and Bread Loaf essentially operates in the same way, there are plenty of noteworthy differences. Bread Loaf has both an American office with an in-house creative studio and a European office in Ukraine. At Budai Media, we have people from every continent collaborating remotely.

Both agencies can agree on how to structure each project, with any given client working with a specialized copywriter, designer, account manager, Klaviyo expert, and quality assurance agent.

Data is Everything

If you want to sell your business, you have to ask yourself, “What is your biggest asset”? Most people think it’s the product or the personnel, but really your subscriber list and your data bring the most value. People don’t care about your logo or copywriting when they are looking to buy. They just want to know what they are getting with your analytics and all the email addresses, phone numbers, and statistics you have fought so hard to collect.

You can never predict platforms like Facebook or Google, so it makes sense to own your own data! Don’t rely on other websites to collect this data. Email is the best channel for this because it lets you control your platform without having to answer to anyone!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Daniel and Mark have both worked with demanding clients, and while everyone wants to see good results, sometimes there are disagreements. Expectations and boundaries should be set in the beginning, and agencies should position themselves as coaches and collaborators instead of servants. Educating clients is half of the job because it’s up to an agency to convince the client that they know what works and what doesn’t, or else they wouldn’t hire you!

Mark also mentions that if he detects a lack of respect for himself or his team, he will quickly cut ties with a client. There is no room for this!

Find the Soul and Build a Community

Large companies with countless shareholders are at a significant disadvantage, and small businesses are starting to capitalize on it. When you start small and organically, you can cultivate a community of people and build trust easier. If you sell wetsuits, create a surfing community. Selling offroading parts? Start a Jeep owners community. There is even a way to monetize this if you want people to join an exclusive club tailored to their passion.

You always want that passion and soul to shine through in everything you do and in every channel you use. People are taking notice, and this is undoubtedly set to become a big trend soon!

Surviving and Thriving in Q1

Sure the first three months of the year might feel dreary for some, but this is the time to innovate, test, and set the foundation for the year. Even the slower months can provide value down the line, and it’s up to you to build habits and create a strategy for the entire year ahead.

Work harder earlier, and challenge your customers to create a product launch/promo calendar so you can plan with a purpose! Take the opportunity to learn and innovate while you have time to breathe in January!

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Follow Mark Milutin:

Bread Loaf's website 

Mark's website 

Retention Lab's website 

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Copywriting is one of the core skills associated with marketing, so naturally, we had to invite one of the best copywriters we know to The Ecom Show!

Both our host (and Budai Media’s CEO) Daniel, and this episode’s guest, Dennis Demori, got their start in copywriting before evolving their skills and adapting to the changing landscape of marketing.

In addition to being a fantastic copywriter, Dennis has mastered the art of promotion, engaging his subscribers, selling courses, building strategies for his clients, and picking up new skills every day!

Skip the episode if you don’t want to hear from two direct response marketing experts as they discuss:

✔️ The key ingredients to becoming a great copywriter
✔️ How ecommerce brands can build more tempting offers
✔️ The magic of preselling
✔️ Thinking like a consultant and picking up skills
✔️ Being patient and thinking strategically

Do You Have What it Takes?

It’s a recurring theme on our podcast, but just about every copywriter never imagined becoming a copywriter until they sort of “fall into it,” as Dennis puts it. Dennis started several years ago in content writing before shifting his focus to the email marketing realm. He never shied away from asking questions, seeking out mentors, or joining Facebook groups to learn from others.

He suggests reading marketing books before you ever think about copywriting. Having that background is so important in the long run. No B.S. Marketing by Dan Kennedy and The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib are some of his favorite books to recommend to beginners.

How Ecommerce Brands Can Improve

Ecommerce brands have a lot to learn about marketing, especially from other industries like SAAS, info products, and coaches. When you have a product like sunglasses, you know what you will get when you order a pair, and you are aware of the competition.

If you stop relying only on discounts that destroy your margins and instead become more creative with how you present, bundle, and package your product, you can better stand out from the crowd. Software and ebooks are more abstract, so you have to market them as such and do a good job representing the value it can bring to people that buy them!

Preselling 101

Preselling is “just another word for marketing.” Far too often, ecommerce brands drop a promotion the day before or the day of a product release, when it’s too late to do anything. You should think more strategically, at least 30 days ahead, to deliberately promote a product and start selling it before it’s even finished!

Authors and Hollywood directors have no problem promoting a book or movie years before it ever releases, so why not do the same for new products in your pipeline?

Don’t Limit Yourself

If you want to succeed in the long haul as a marketer or even a copywriter, you need to adjust your mindset. Many people can write basic copy, and AI is already starting to get the hang of subject lines for emails. If you can position yourself as a consultant and handle more than the writing of an email, you will become priceless to a company. Learn to make a strategy, don’t be afraid to ask tough questions, and collaborate with clients instead of just working for them.

Dennis recommends studying for at least 30 minutes a day and get used to picking up skills to bring added value to both you and your customers all the time!

Patience is a Virtue

One big mistake most brands make is rushing a sale. The experience from beginning to the end of a sales funnel is delicate, and sometimes people need time to do their own research, figure out they have a problem, and actively search for a solution. Copywriters who can figure out what stage of the sales process their audience is in will be best at what they do!

For those interested in learning from, speaking to, or working with Dennis Demori, you can Google him and find him on most social media channels or his website. Be sure to subscribe to his email list, an invaluable source of knowledge for everybody!

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Follow Dennis Demori:

Dennis' Newsletter 

Dennis' Telegram Channel 

Dennis' Facebook 

Dennis' Instagram 

Dennis' Twitter 

Dennis' website  

Dennis' books and courses 

Work with Dennis 

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TikTok and Pinterest Marketing: Why You Should Care More About These Channels in 2021

Everyone’s heard of Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram, but are there other lucrative channels your ecommerce business is forgetting?

In this exciting episode of The Ecom Show, our friendly host and Budai Media founder Daniel meets with Joanna Szewczyk, a brilliant marketing guru from Poland!

Before leaving her job working in IT at a big bank in New York City, Joanna had plenty of free time in her office and not enough work. She searched for side projects and business ideas before realizing just how promising the Pinterest platform could be in the right hands, and she never looked back.

If you’ve ever wondered about alternative ways to promote your brand and drive huge web traffic, you’ll enjoy hearing Daniel and the CEO & Founder of PinMeApp discuss:

✔️ The difference between social media and search engines
✔️ Who should use Pinterest, and how it can drive web traffic
✔️ Going viral on Tik Tok and why it’s different than the rest
✔️ The right and wrong time to worry about conversion rates
✔️ Staying ahead of the curve and adapting

Know the Difference

To understand how Pinterest works, Joanna says it’s critical to change your understanding of the platform. Pinterest works more like a search engine in the vein of Google or Youtube, with incredible search mechanisms and recommendations. Facebook and Instagram are for people to consume media and promote themselves, while Google only shows you what you search for.

Pinterest combines the best of both social media and search engines, giving you a feed for those you follow, ads, and recommendations for trending media.

Is it for You?

Most people don’t even consider Pinterest when building their brand, but they might not realize how much potential money and exposure they are missing. Joanna was first inspired to work with Pinterest when she saw a travel blogger earning over 100k a month with affiliate marketing and advertisements thanks to a robust influx of traffic from Pinterest.

If you put in the work and post to the right public boards, you can build a following on Pinterest and leverage it to whatever service, coaching, or product you provide. Joanna also mentions that any business can benefit from Pinterest and Tik Tok accounts to build trust and exposure.

It’s Easier than Ever

Building a following on Instagram or Facebook can be frustrating, even with top-notch content and some algorithm luck. To even see your content on Instagram, you have to have a certain amount of followers already.

Tik Tok has revolutionized the game according to Joanna, who had a simple video of her apartment go viral despite only having a few hundred followers. Tik Tok is more democratic and allows most people to follow trends and make their mark no matter their audience, which is great for new brands.

Forget What You Know About KPIs

Online marketers are obsessed with their metrics like conversion rates and impressions, but Joanna says you have to ditch this way of thinking on Pinterest or Tik Tok.

You don’t “walk through a city looking at billboards and go right to the store once you see something you like”. The same might ring true for Pinterest, which is meant to introduce you to products and build exposure. Ultimately the conversion rate cannot be truly counted on, so Pinterest and Tik Tok work best to gain exposure and build an audience.

Ready to Adapt

Marketers also know that you need to be quick on your feet. You can have Facebook Ads, or Instagram algorithms figured out, and you’re on top of the world, and the next day it all comes crashing down when they tweak some metrics or codes.

Joanna created her own app, PinMeApp, to help people automatically build a massive presence on Pinterest, and for a few years, it worked well. Now Pinterest has excluded third-party apps like hers, so she has morphed her business into a Pinterest Management firm that offers courses for those wanting to learn her secrets of the trade.

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Follow Joanna Szewczyk:

Joanna's Facebook 

Joanna's Pinterest firm 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to Build an Elite Team of 50+ Ecommerce Marketers

In this episode of The Ecom Show, Daniel reconnects with Bostjan Belingar, a fellow agency owner and master of email marketing!

Not only is Bostjan a great mind to pick when it comes to retention marketing and growing a successful agency…

Daniel and Bostjan are good friends and former flatmates at the Hustle House since meeting at a Klaviyo Conference in Boston a few years back, and now they are “friendly competitors.”

If you’d like to learn from the respective founders of Budai Media and Hustler Marketing about how to grow a successful marketing agency of your own, listen in and hear these successful business minds speak about:

✔️ Knowing when to build a team
✔️ Where to find the right people
✔️ Creating an efficient hiring system
✔️ Building a healthy work culture and limiting employee turnover
✔️ Questions to ask yourself when you own your own company

Is it for You?

Both Bostjan and Daniel hardly expected to start their own agencies back when they both got their start as copywriters. They wrote and learned from mentors before feeling the need to take on additional team members to lighten the workload. Before Bostjan knew it, he had 10-15 people working for him and over 60 people currently employed at Hustler Marketing.

At a certain point, you have to choose between scaling up and building a company or charging more money and becoming a highly paid specialist that works alone. Creating an agency is a lot of work, but it pays off in the long run if you are patient enough to wait.

In Search of Talent

After initially recruiting his first hires through Facebook and Instagram, Bostjan moved on to Upwork, where he found limited success. The quality of people on there was all over the place. Linkedin Hiring became his new best friend, and now his appointed “Head of Culture” uses it for every hire they make.

Linkedin Hiring is relatively cheap, and it lets you filter by country, experience, and more when looking for the perfect candidate. It doesn’t hurt to have a handy hiring/HR consultant to help guide you through interviews and the hiring process!

What’s Your Hiring Process?

Bostjan wisely says that “the quality of your work and employees is directly proportional to the quality of your hiring process.” You should leave emotion out of it, and don’t show up to an interview without any questions for your potential hire thought out already.

You should implement a funnel system and enter candidates into an excel spreadsheet. Ask them questions before you ever speak to them, make them take a competency test, and meet with the 5-10 best candidates that make it that far.

Keep Your Team Happy

It isn’t enough to hire the right people… You want to keep the right people working with you too! Talk to your employees, give them great feedback, see what your team thinks of each other with 360 feedback sessions, and develop a way to keep track of team morale and satisfaction if you can.

You should also find a way to track data like hires, resignations, employee turnover, and any other stat you can think of to make your company more efficient. Bostjan even employs a therapist to run workshops and help his team cope better during the week, which is quite revolutionary in this day and age.

What is Important to You?

The most important thing you can do as a business owner is to keep your goals and your dreams in sight at all times. Would you rather make a modest sum of money each month while working 25 hours a week, or make much more but have no free time and no weekends off?

Bostjan is happy to offer equity to his employees as long as he stays the majority owner. He prioritizes growth over money in his pockets because he is playing the long game. It isn’t all about revenue after all! It’s also essential to keep that winning mindset to stay motivated long-term with your business!

Most businesses fail, so take pride in what you are doing, work with the right people, and enjoy what you do. If you can’t enjoy what you do, find something you like to do better!

Follow Daniel Budai:

Daniel's LinkedIn

Daniel's Facebook

Follow Bostjan Belingar:

Bostjan's website 

Bostjan's LinkedIn 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.